Catalog Entries

Limited opportunities to enroll for course work on an Independent Study basis are available. A student interested in this option should obtain an Independent Study Registration Form from the Registrar, have it completed by the instructor and school dean involved, and return it to the Registrar's Office. Consult the current Schedule of Classes concerning Independent Study.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

This course designation describes a transfer course from another institution where an equivalency to a Ramapo College course has not been determined. Upon convener evaluation, this course ID may be changed to an equivalent of a Ramapo College course or may fulfill a requirement.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

This course designation is used to describe a transfer course from another institution which has been evaluated by the convener. A course with this course number has no equivalent Ramapo course. It may fulfill a requirement or may count as a free elective.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Limited opportunities to enroll for course work on an Independent Study basis are available. A student interested in this option should obtain an Independent Study Registration Form from the Registrar, have it completed by the instructor and school dean involved, and return it to the Registrar's Office. Consult the current Schedule of Classes for policies concerning Independent Study.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

This course will introduce you to Philosophy's "World Wisdom Traditions." Philosophers are supposed to be "lovers of wisdom". They sometimes make arguments on what is real, or what is just, or what is true. In this class, we will all become philosophers. And as philosophers, some questions we will ask ourselves are: What is an argument, and why make one? Does God exist? Do we exist? How should we treat ourselves or other people? Special attention will be paid to how Eastern and Western Philosophy and religion intersect in four great wisdom traditions: Abrahamic, Greco-Roman, Indian, and Chinese philosophies.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Existentialism is a philosophical movement that began in the 19th century. Existentialists pay special attention to the individual person's reality. Questions existentialists often ask are: What is the meaning of life? Why bother doing anything if this meaning cannot be determined? If God does not exist, what consequence does that carry for my own life? What moral, political, or aesthetic choices should I make, given the overwhelming freedom I have? In this class, we will explore such questions in philosophical essays as well as in literature.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

The focus of this course will be the Middle Ages, the period spanning roughly between the 5th and 14th centuries. It was a time when the three so-called Abrahamic religions entertained an on-going philosophical discourse. The discourse included the justification of evil, the predominance of faith or reason, and the nature of God. Readings will be from original sources.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

This course is an introduction to ways to critically evaluate arguments. Arguments occupy a large part of our discourse, be it personal or professional. Arguments consist of linguistic entities that have properties (they are true or false, for example); we shall explore the various forms of these entities. Arguments themselves have properties that we shall try to understand. We shall look at common fallacies and finish the semester by trying to figure out ways to determine the causes of events.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

This course is an overview of Greek and Roman Philosophy. Readings will include selections from the Hellenic, Hellenistic and Roman periods. The Hellenic period reflects the importance of the city-state; readings include fragments from the Pre-Socratics, Plato, and Aristotle. The Hellenistic age spans the Alexandrian period. The empire replaces the city-state and individual schools of Philosophy appear to fill the void left by the departure of the city-state. The Stoic, the Skeptic, the Epicurean and the Cynics are the principal schools of that period. Finally, we shall explore the eclecticism of Roman Philosophy.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

The course proposes to introduce and discuss various accounts of love and friendship offered by philosophers from Antiquity to the present. Thus, besides, hopefully, gaining some insights into what it is we are talking about when we use the words "love" and "friendship", the seminar will also be a "friendly" introduction to the history of philosophy.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

This course designation describes a transfer course from another institution where an equivalency to a Ramapo college course has not been determined. Upon convener evaluation, this course ID may be changed to an equivalent of a Ramapo College course or may fulfill a requirement.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

This course designation is used to describe a transfer course from another institution which has been evaluated by the convener. A course with this course number has no equivalent Ramapo course. It may fulfill a requirement or may count as a free elective.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Limited opportunities to enroll for course work on an Independent Study basis are available. A student interested in this option should obtain an Independent Study Registration Form from the Registrar, have it completed by the instructor and school dean involved, and return it to the Registrar's Office. Consult the current Schedule of Classes for policies concerning Independent Study.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

The emphasis will be on "living" religions, i.e. those that are still practiced today. They include: Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism and Bahai. The readings will consist of textbook narratives as well as excerpts from the Scriptures that form the basis of the religions. We shall pay particular attention to the advice religions give their adherents as to how to live a good life.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

This course will be a comprehensive survey of Aesthetics, the Philosophy of
Beauty. Aesthetics is the philosophical study of judgments of taste and beauty. Art (for example, visual art, music, literature, or architecture) and nature are prominent themes in Aesthetics. This course will survey different topics in Aesthetics, and we will all become philosophers. Some questions we will ask ourselves are: What is art? Is art necessarily beautiful? Is beauty objective or subjective? What does it mean to have an aesthetic experience? We will read ancient, modern, and contemporary works from Western and Non-Western Philosophy.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Philosophy of Science is a fairly new discipline. It grew around the end of the 19th century after many scientific discoveries challenged some of our basic assumptions. We shall focus on the so-called modern scientific method and criticisms of it. Readings will include philosophers from the Continental traditions, e.g., Cassirer, Bachelard and Foucault, as well as philosophers from the Analytic traditions. The course will also include multi-cultural and feminist approaches to the Philosophy of Science.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Social Philosophy has been defined as the "critical examination of ideas and beliefs about society." Social Philosophy usually combines ethics and politics to examine the relationship of the individual to society. Social Philosophy covers a range of interrelated topics, including: authenticity, identity, subjectivity, group membership, solidarity, diversity, and agency. This course will focus on writings by contemporary philosophers, but may also include works by canonical philosophers or even novelists.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

This course will be a comprehensive introduction to bioethics. Bioethics applies the traditional ethical concerns (such as morality, virtue, and values) to the technologies and choices of today's world. Some questions we will consider are: When does human life begin? Should it ever be ended for compassionate reasons? What obligations do we have to those who cannot make their own health care decisions? Can animal experimentation be justified if its results enhance human life? What role should professional ethicists have in deciding these issues?
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

"American Philosophy" examines the works of major American Philosophers beginning with Jonathan Edwards and ending with Cornel West. After reading two essays by R.W. Emerson, we shall focus on the works of the so called "pragmatist" philosophers of the 19th century, C.S. Peirce, William James, Jane Addams and John Dewey. We shall read and discuss signature essays such as "The Fixation of a Belief" and "The Will to Believe." Philosophical issues will include theories of knowledge and of meaning, education and freedom.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

This course will be a study in ethics. Ethics concerns how humans ought to live and the kinds of people they ought to try to be. This class will have a dual focus on theories of ethics as well as on applied problems in today's multicultural world: world poverty, war, race and sexuality, among other topics. Our philosophical readings will include classic texts (e.g., Plato, Kant, and Mill) as well as recent texts (e.g., Martin Luther King, Carol Gilligan, and Peter Singer).
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Essentially, the course has three goals. It attempts to separate the thought of Socrates from that of Plato. For this goal, readings include the following dialogues: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Symposium and Phaedrus. Students are also encouraged to read Xenophon and Aristophanes. The second goal is to understand the thought of Plato on knowledge, ethics, politics and art. The Republic will be the main source of our information. Finally, Aristotle's criticisms of Plato's thought will occupy the rest of the semester.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Four areas of the world will be the focus of this course: China, India, Russia and Africa. We shall explore the thoughts of ancient and medieval China as well as those of India. For Russia we shall concentrate on the 19th and 20th centuries, and for Africa our focus will be the identity of an African Philosophy, a debate that has occupied much of the past 30 years. Time permitting, we may read and discuss some fairly recent thoughts from Islamic countries.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

This course explores the possibility of translating a natural language such as English into an artificial language. After accepting some compromises, we shall study ways of "proving" important logical properties such as: consistency, validity, equivalence and relational properties.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

This course designation describes a transfer course from another institution where an equivalency to a Ramapo College course has not been determined. Upon convener evaluation, this course ID may be changed to an equivalent of a Ramapo College course or may fulfill a requirement.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

This course designation is used to describe a transfer course from another institution which has been evaluated by the convener. A course with this course number has no equivalent Ramapo course. It may fulfill a requirement or may count as a free elective.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Limited opportunities to enroll for course work on an Independent Study basis are available. A student interested in this option should obtain an Independent Study Registration Form from the Registrar, have it completed by the instructor and school dean involved, and return it to the Registrar's Office. Consult the current Schedule of Classes for policies concerning Independent Study.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

This course designation describes a transfer course from another institution where an equivalency to a Ramapo College course has not been determined. Upon convener evaluation, this course ID may be changed to an equivalent of a Ramapo College course or may fulfill a requirement.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

This course designation is used to describe a transfer course from another institution which has been evaluated by the convener. A course with this course number has no equivalent Ramapo course. It may fulfill a requirement or may count as a free elective.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours